Chamber uses big pink chair as fundraiser

January 23, 2013

SARANAC LAKE - The Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce is urging people to "Pink Chair Your Friends" to help two causes.

The chamber is renting out the large chair it uses for its Great Adirondack Ice Out fundraiser for $25 to people who want the chair left in front of someone's home or business as a prank. For $10, the person or business who's been pink-chaired can find out who did it. The money raised will go to the chamber and breast cancer research.

Chamber Executive Director Katy Van Anden said it's comparable to the pink flamingo prank, in which numerous pink, plastic flamingos are put in an unknowing person's or business front lawn. The chair was painted pink to recognize the breast cancer research cause.

Article Photos

Tim Hesseltine, left, stands next to a large pink chair he built for use as a Saranac Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and breast cancer research fundraiser, on Monday afternoon in the Adirondack Medical Center lobby. Sitting on the chair are, from left, Megan Murphy of Adirondack Health, chamber Executive Director Katy Van Anden, Kathy McHugh of the Adirondack Health Foundation and Kathy Nixon, who works in the hospital’s mammography unit.(Enterprise photo — Chris Knight)

Tim Hesseltine, co-owner of Upstate Auto, built the large chair for last year's Ice Out fundraiser.

"This year we were thinking about doing it again, but it came to my mind that maybe we should do something bigger than just Ice Out," Hesseltine said. "I thought breast cancer awareness would be a good cause, so half the proceeds will go to the chamber and half to breast cancer research. So we painted the chair pink."

The chair has been in front of about a half-dozen local businesses so far, including Nonna Fina and Little Italy restaurants, Community Bank, Upstate Auto, Ampersound and North Woods Engineering. On Monday, it showed up in the lobby of Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake.

Van Anden said about $400 has been raised over the last two weeks.

"It's a new fundraiser that we've never done before, and it's been going really well," she said. "Every day it's had a home."

The funds for breast cancer research will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

For more information, or to pink chair your friends, contact the chamber at 518-891-1990, stop by the chamber office at 193 River St. or email info@saranaclake.com.